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Two spaces

In ancient times we lived with the Wilderness, fighting against its severity and its roughness, and receiving the benefits of its fertility. The wildness of nature was directly related to our lives. In our current age, we live in cities. A city is a large, man-made environment, in which we no longer think much about the power of nature, except when we are shocked by occasional natural disasters, such as storms, floods, droughts and earthquakes. However, we still instinctively recall the lives of our ancestors, and have complex feelings of fear and yearning for life in the Wilderness. Suggest a house in the Wilderness, in which we modern-age humans can feel both the richness and the toughness of the Wilderness, and sense our relationship to it.

Two spaces are made in the wilderness. One is a grove of trees, existing, that has been painted white. The other is a small weather tight box with one small eye that looks directly at the grove of trees. Through the eye, daylight projects an inverted image of the landscape across the walls and ceiling: a camera obscura. This box, too, has been painted white. The outdoor space is used for immersion in the wilderness. The indoor space is used for protection from it. Both spaces heighten the resident’s perception through abstraction and stare on toward the other, perpetually and perhaps indifferently.